


Overwhelmed

by FloralBucky



Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Couch Cuddles, Dissociation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, Matt Murdock Protection Squad, Mild panic, Multi, Polyamory, Queerplatonic Relationships, Sensory Overload, could also be read as, could be read as, kind of??, mentions of insomnia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 08:17:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10940574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloralBucky/pseuds/FloralBucky
Summary: "He tried to breathe but the noise was echoing in his chest and in his lungs and he wasn’t sure if there was enough room in there for air."Sometimes New York gets too loud.





	Overwhelmed

 

“Oh come on!” Claire groaned, falling back against the couch. It let out a soft puff of air as the cushions accepted her weight. “That was cheating and you know it! I invite you into my home, I let you eat my food, and then you disrespect me by cheating. Unbelievable!” She threw an arm over her eyes dramatically with a sigh.

Matt laughed.

It was Friday, aka weekly game night. They all took turns hosting and tonight was Claire’s night, so of course she took every chance she got to complain about the three of them destroying her property and demolishing the contents of her fridge. Matt pressed himself closer to Claire on the couch, soothed by the warmth of her body. He was exhausted – it had been a long, long, long week at Nelson and Murdock and an even longer week at his “second office,” but he didn’t complain. Even though Foggy, Claire and Karen knew about Daredevil, they didn’t like it and they certainly didn’t like hearing about him getting hurt or putting himself in danger. Matt sighed and Claire pressed a soft kiss to his temple before turning back to the game. 

“Cheating?” Foggy exclaimed from his seat in the armchair. He had a complicated game piece in one hand and a card in the other and his eyes were bright and happy. He looked around in exaggerated disbelief. “The only cheater here is him!” He pointed accusatorily at Matt. “ He has all his super sense thingies and can probably tell what move we’re going to make next!”

Matt snorted. 

“I’m not telepathic. And I’m not cheating.” He threw an arm around Claire, who huffed in protest when he started playing with her braid. “If anyone is the cheater it’s probably that one over there.” He nodded his head towards Karen.

“What?” Karen squeaked theatrically, her voice octaves above its normal level. “I am the most innocent of us all. How dare you accuse me of cheating!”

“It makes sense,” Matt admitted with a laugh, catching the pillow Karen threw at him. He cradled it to his chest with the arm not occupied with petting Claire’s head. “The quiet ones are always the sneaky ones.”

“The quiet ones are always the…” Karen grumbled under her breath. “I’ll show you sneaky!” She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and hunkered down over the table, her eyes moving between the pieces. She picked up one figure and moved it two spaces to the left, grabbed a card and followed the instructions on it, and then took a second figure and hurled it off the board towards Foggy’s armchair. 

“Aha!” she exclaimed. “Matt you just got served!” 

“What?” he laughed incredulously, pulling away from Claire so he could get closer to the coffee table with the game board. He reached out and gingerly fingered the pieces as to not knock anything over. After a moment of investigation he reached the empty spot where his player had been. He laughed again, the corners of his eyes crinkling. 

Foggy smiled inwardly at his best friend’s joy. Matt rarely went without his glasses, and it was a testament to how comfortable he was around them that he let them see him. All of him.

“You scoundrel!” Matt was saying to Karen. He fell back against Claire just as dramatically as she had a minute before and her laughs vibrated through his chest. “Fine!” he exclaimed. “I guess that means I’m out. This feels like a game of ‘gang up against the blind guy’ but if that’s how it’s going to be then that’s how it’s going to be.” 

“You’re ridiculous,” Foggy chuckled as he turned back to the game. “Okay ladies. Looks like it’s just us left.”

The three of them continued playing as Matt’s eyes slid shut. He curled into Claire’s side with his head pillowed against her soft stomach and let himself drift. He couldn’t fall asleep, no matter how exhausted he was, but that was nothing new. Matt hardly slept. He was stressed all day, stressed all night, and when he finally lay down to give himself a break everything was too overwhelming. 

He could deal with the touch. He usually slept on silk sheets to minimize the discomfort of his hypersensitive skin rubbing against cotton, so that never really kept him up. 

The sounds, though. The sounds were something else entirely. He would lie in bed curled around himself, perfectly still, as the sounds of the city barraged his senses and thudded against the inside of his skull. He’d had years of practice tuning them out, but every once in a while he would have a bad day followed by a crashing bout of insomnia and he would just painfully succumb to the torturous noise.  
Apparently tonight was one of those nights. 

Friday night in New York City was not calm by any means, but tonight it felt especially…loud. He tucked his head closer to Claire, wincing, as someone two blocks away threw a beer bottle into a metal trash bin. The resulting clanging sounds were as loud in his ears as if it had happened a foot away. Claire smoothed his hair against his forehead soothingly and went back to the game, unaware of what was happening to him. Good. He didn’t need anyone to worry. He was fine.  


He was fine.

A party raged on a few apartment buildings down the road, thudding base reverberating inside Matt’s rib cage. A toddler jolted from her sleep, shrieking for her father. Some teenage girls screamed and laughed as they teetered down the street in their clicking heels, tipsy and joyous. A dog barked. Another dog barked in reply. A woman sobbed into the telephone. A fist beat repeatedly into a punching bag. A car door slammed. Police sirens wailed. Matt’s jeans scratched against the insides of his thighs and it felt like someone was dragging blunt, jagged nails down his skin. His cheeks felt rubbed raw by the textured pattern of Claire’s sweater. He tried to breathe but the noise was echoing in his chest and in his lungs and he wasn’t sure if there was enough room in there for air.  
He whimpered, just barely, but they heard. 

“Matt?” Claire asked with concern, pushing his hair away from his face and shifting so she could see him. “Matt?” she repeated when he didn’t answer.  


Even her soft voice was too much for him. He winced again. 

“Is he okay?” Matt heard Karen ask in the background. It felt like he was underwater or like she was far, far away. He still wasn’t really breathing, he noted. He felt overwhelmed. 

“Oh shit,” Foggy said as he realized what was happening. He got out of his chair as quietly as possible and moved towards the couch. “This used to happen in college sometimes but I haven’t seen him like this in ages. Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Claire asked again, her voice taking on an edge that Karen very clearly recognized as her “I’m going to fix this goddamn it” tone.”

“Sometimes the enhanced senses become too much and he experiences a kind of -”

“-Sensory overload,” Claire finished grimly. 

“Yeah, exactly,” Foggy said in his quietest voice, as he got closer to Matt. He sounded calm but his expression was pained. Karen’s heart clenched. “I didn’t really know what caused it in college because he hadn’t told me about the whole Daredevil thing yet, but he would lie in bed catatonic for hours. Sometimes he would break down. Cry. Sometimes he would…hurt himself.” Karen clapped a hand over her mouth and Claire closed her eyes briefly. Foggy swallowed. “I think he did it to distract himself from all the feelings, to focus on one sensation at a time, but it- it really fucking scared me.” His eyes were watery and very, very wide. “I think the best thing to do is to get him out of those clothes because they’re probably really hurting him right now and get him somewhere quiet and safe. I- I’m not really sure what else to do.” He ran a hand through his hair. 

“Okay,” Claire nodded. “Okay.” She tried to shift out from under Matt but he let out a little breathy gasp of pain and she stopped immediately, squeezing her eyes shut again. 

“Matt,” she whispered. “I’m going to have to move to help you and it’s going to hurt. I’m sorry but it’s going to have to hurt for just one second and then you’ll feel better soon, okay?”

Matt didn’t respond, but they didn’t have a choice. Claire slid out from under Matt as gently as she could until she could stand up. The second his head hit the couch cushion Matt let out a stifled groan of pain, his mouth shut tight in a line. His eyes were squeezed closed and his whole body was tense. 

Karen swiped her hands over her face. “We have to move him,” she decided. “He can’t stay on this couch. Claire can we use your bed?”

“Of course,” Claire breathed heavily. “Of course. I think we can get him there with minimal problems if we all lift together at the same time. I don’t want to hurt him anymore but I think he’s already hurting pretty bad the way he is.” She looked at Matt, curled up in a fetal position on the couch, and the memory of him laughing ten minutes ago felt so, so distant. 

Matt could hear them talking. He could tell they were trying to be quiet, but each whispered word shot right into him and worsened his already unbearable headache. He could feel himself trembling and he hoped he wasn’t making too much noise. He couldn’t really hear himself and he didn’t want to worry them. He really, really didn’t want to worry them. 

All of a sudden he felt an arm under him, and then another and another. A warm hand brushed against the rough fabric of his t-shirt and it felt like he was burned. He felt more than heard a sound leave his mouth, but he wasn’t sure if it was a sob or a laugh. And then he was being lifted clumsily in the air and everything hurt. His skin was on fire and his head screamed and he felt like he was going to throw up. He clenched his eyes tightly and tried to breathe, but his breaths were coming out in little gasping puffs and he wasn’t getting enough air. Just when he thought he was going to vomit he was being set down again, this time on a much cooler, silkier surface. Then his shoes were coming off, and his socks, and his jeans. The second his bare legs touched the sheets – sheets, that was what that was – he started to cry. The sound was still oppressively overwhelming, and every noise rattled inside his head and inside his chest, but at least his skin wasn’t burning anymore. 

He drew his legs up and clenched his own arms with his hands, his fingers pressed so tight against his flesh that it started to turn white. He wanted to claw out of his own skin. It was grounding, the pain. 

A moment later Matt felt the bed dip. Three bodies curled around him, also in their underwear, and the only thing that didn’t hurt was their skin against his own. In fact, it soothed him, it helped ground him, and his grip on his arms loosened slightly. 

Matt pressed his cheek into Claire’s soft chest as Foggy curled around his back and Karen draped a warm arm over his bare stomach. 

“It hurts,” he breathed into Claire’s skin, the admission soft and strangled. A hot tear slipped down his face and onto Claire’s bra. 

“We know,” Foggy reassured Matt, but his own chest was tight. “We know and we’re so, so sorry. But we’re not going anywhere Matty. We’re staying right here with you until you feel better, okay?”

Karen stroked Matt’s hipbone with her fingertips and left a cool, tingling sensation in her wake. “We’re here for you Matt,” she whispered into his stomach. 

Claire said nothing, only stroked his hair gently and kissed his forehead with chapped lips. 

Matt clung to them and himself, letting them help him breathe through the pain, until he drifted fitfully off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this and that it made you feel at least 2 feelings. 
> 
> (Also I wrote this with a romantic relationship between the four of them in mind but it can totally be read as platonic and I accept and dig that just as much. Partners helping partners is just as cool as friends helping friends!!)


End file.
